Pillars are Just Crutches

There is something lacking in the leadership of the charismatic church today.  Something that is fundamental to the Christian walk.  It’s been evident as Todd Bentley’s story unravels and it looks the same way for Mike Guglielmucci, that this thing is absent within charismatic Christian leadership today. However, a lot of church leaders will tell you that to live a proper Christian life without this one thing is next to impossible.

It is Accountability.

There is a story I read today that I think sums up what I want to say.  So I’m going to tell it, then I’m going to quote John Arnott who commissioned Todd Bentley in his ministry.  The difference is staggering!

The story comes out of NASCAR.  Joe Gibbs (who is a Christian) Racing was asked by NASCAR to lower their horsepower so as to even the game (Gibbs had one over 1/2 the games that season!).  And unknown to Gibbs the mechanics and technicians, rightfully angry at NASCARS decision, tried to cheat the system and ended up getting caught.  Gibbs did not blame his mechanics or engineers, he took on the blame for himself.  He said that the incident “goes against everything we stand for as an organization.” He added that “we will take full responsibility and accept any penalties NASCAR levies against us.”

A few months back John Arnott along with others went down to Florida to lay their hands on and commission Todd Bentley.  Bentley would go on stage and speak his mind, talk about angels and praise heretics of the past.  Arnott and the others were nowhere to be seen, when, seemingly out of the blue, Todd filed for separation from his wife after getting emotionally attached to another woman.

John’s response to what happened: was “Had any of us known what was just ahead, perhaps we would have been able to intervene before things went into crisis … I wanted to be available to Todd if he needed advice. I had no agenda other than to see what was happening in Lakeland continue and to see Todd nurture this revival successfully.  I wish I had known that he was struggling in his marriage, but unfortunately, I did not.”

Do you see the difference?  John thinks that because it didn’t happen to him he is clear of the event and thinks he has no connection.  However, he commissioned Todd as a leader telling the people around that this guy is a faithful follower of Jesus.

But Gibbs understood that he is accountable for the actions of his crew (of the people he commissions to work) even if he doesn’t know that those actions are taking place!

One response is godly, the other is not.  One asks for forgiveness the other raises his hands and says, “don’t look at me!”

The charismatic leaders must stand and be accountable for who they allow to speak from the front, what that person says and does.  Until then the celebrity pastor will continue to live until no one takes Christianity seriously.

As I’ve noted in previous blogs by a similar title, I just finished reading the surprisingly powerful, In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen.  The book talks about what the author learned about leadership in his transition from Harvard to Daybreak.

The last temptation that Nouwen talks about in Jesus wilderness temptations is that of being powerful and wanting control.  Nouwen shares about how his arguments and nice words could not convince the handicapped people at Daybreak.  He had to let go of his need for control and power.  He offers good insight to why the temptation to be powerful can often be the most powerful temptation:

What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible?  Maybe it is that pwer offers an easy substitute for the hard love.  It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people that to love people, easier to own like than to love life.  Jesus asks, “Do you love me?”  We ask, “Can we sit at your right hand and your left hand in your Kingdom? (p. 77)

Nouwen hopes for a poor church whose leaders are willing to be led in humility.  He is not referring to weak leadership, simply leadership that allows love to overrule.  The way to do this is through theological reflection.  Nouwen says, “the task of future Christian leaders is not to make a little contribution to the solution of the pains and tribulations of their time, but to identify and announce the ways in which Jesus is leading God’s people out of slavery, through the desert to a new land of freedom” (p. 87).

I agree with Nouwen that todays Christian leaders have become more ‘pseudo-social-worker or pseudo-psychologist rather than real ministers.  Pastors have (to some degree) forgotten that it is God who calls people into ministry and therefore God who will sustain, provide and help people in ministry.  To strictly rely on counseling or social-work techniques cheapens and diminishes what God wants to do.  Ministers need to be theologically and prayerfully prepared “to manifest the divine event of God’s saving work in the midst of the many seemingly random events of their time” (p.88).